Guardian
by spudz
Summary: A deeper look into the last moments of the 7A finale when Spencer gets shot and my version of what happens next. Focused more on the girls' friendship/Spoby vs. the reveal. The girls were too calm; there was so much emotional potential for this scene, so I'm expanding on the characters' thoughts and feelings, especially over seeing one of their best friends fighting for her life.
1. Breathe

"No!"

BANG!

Spencer's body thrusted back violently from the force.

Everything seemed to slow down. Her head was flooded by a drowning daze, all sound reverberating in a chamber of echoed silence.

 _It hurt…_

There was a piercing sting radiating from her chest, as if sending out a distress signal to the rest of her body.

 _Drenched…her hands…she didn't realize she had told them to move._

She lowered her head searching for where her hands had landed. But whether it was the darkness of the room or the enveloping vignette of her vision, she could not make out the extent of her injuries.

 _She felt it though, that much she knew._

And then, time snapped back.

A steady, shrill ring hollowed out her hearing. She stumbled awkwardly down the hallway, arms outstretched wading through the darkness. Desperately she grasped, clawing onto a railing, the grooves of the wall panel, then to a door frame – anything to keep her body upright and her mind grounded.

 _She was still in danger. She had to keep moving._

Her legs felt heavy yet flimsy as she willed them forward. With shaky hands and even shakier breath, she pulled herself through a doorway with dizzying steps. She hoped she was nearing an exit. She didn't know how much longer she could hold off the darkness.

"Hel…" she tried to call out, but her chest protested with an unforgiving lurch. A new wave of pain flooded her body. Her eyes shut involuntarily as she went into a violent coughing fit spouting up blood. When it finally passed, she opened her eyes and tried to reclaim control only to have a kaleidoscopic scene wash over her vision. A hot, pulsing numbness overcame her body and she crumpled sideways in a freefall. Her shoulder slammed into the floor clumsily. The pain was overwhelming and for a moment, she thought the darkness would win.

She laid there on the floor, breath hitching and yanking her chest upwards in a painful jerk every other second.

 _Breathe… Breathe…_

 _It was taking a conscious effort just to breathe._

Then she heard footsteps on the creaky floor.

 _You can't give up. You have to keep moving._

 _Breathe… Breathe…_

With renewed resolve, she applied more pressure to her wound. And with whatever strength she had left, she began her agonizing crawl forward, alternating between pushing off the hard floor with her hand while her unsteady legs propelled her body through the pool of her own blood.

 _Breathe… Breathe…_

With every inch forward, a fresh stream of blood seemed to pour down from her chest.

"Is that you, Spencer…hiding in the corner?" Jenna called out as she entered the room pointing her gun, "I smell your blood."

Spencer tried to keep moving but she hit something solid.

 _It was a dead end. There was nowhere to go._

"This is as much for me as it is for Charlotte."

Spencer tried to silence her ragged breaths, hoping Jenna would miss. But it was useless.

 _This is how she was going to die…alone. Her friends still in peril. Never getting to say goodbye. Never getting to be with the one she loves…_

 _Toby…_

His name brought her a tinge of comfort and Spencer readied herself to face death.

But suddenly Jenna screamed before falling to the floor with a thud. A dark figure emerged from behind her unconscious form. Spencer squinted to see who her savior was, but as the figure came into the light, her relief dissipated.

Mary Drake came into view with Jenna's gun in hand.

Panic filled Spencer's eyes. Her brain shouted at her to move but it had lost all command of her body as she sank closer to the floor slowly giving in to gravity.

 _Breathe…_

 _Breathe…_

 _What is she doing here? What is she going to do to me?_

Spencer heard a low hum as Mary approached. Mary took hold of Spencer and cradled her head onto her lap. Spencer instinctively struggled against her grip but Mary's firm but surprisingly gentle touch kept her down. Mary brushed away Spencer's blood-stained hand that listlessly hovered over her chest. Instead, she used her own gloved hand to reapply pressure to the wound that was still bleeding freely. Spencer gritted her teeth from the contact, but she was grateful to be relieved of the responsibility of stemming the blood.

 _Breathe…_

 _Breathe…_

 _It was so cold._

 _Mary was humming? A lullaby…strange._

Over Mary's voice, Spencer heard a faint sound.

 _What was it? It sounded like voices…somebody familiar. They were looking for something, no, someone…it was her name they were saying S…_

"Ssss!" Spencer hissed interrupting her own thoughts as her body jerked. The pain. It was burrowing further into the cavity of her chest. The adrenaline had worn off, and now she was ever more attuned to her nerves on fire.

 _The voices…they were getting louder but softer at the same time. Desperate._

They came running. Spencer saw them one by one.

First Ali, and Aria.

Then a brief pause…

 _The others? Where were the others?_

Spencer's heart leapt in fear and she choked out a gasp. But as she turned her head slightly, she saw another blonde form enter her view.

 _Her vision was getting blurry. It was getting harder to breathe. She didn't have much time left, but she had to be sure first._

And finally, she heard the unmistakable sweet voice…

 _Emily._

If but for a moment, Spencer's chest felt whole.

 _Breathe…_

 _Breathe…_

 _Safe. They're all safe. Good._

Her throat was so dry and she could feel herself slowly suffocating. She shivered.

 _The pain…it was excruciating. Her head…it was getting hard to think, hard to hear, hard to focus._

Spencer's eyes darted to try to lock onto an anchor point. They found…

 _Mary. It was foggy. Her lips were moving. She was saying something. It seemed important but the sounds…they were fading._

Spencer's eyes began to slowly roll back.

 _Breathe…_

 _Br-Brea…_

And in a cruelly peaceful way, her eyes fluttered shut.


	2. A Safe Place

"Spencer?"

"Spence?"

No response.

"Spencer?" they called out more desperately.

"In here!" Allison shouted in horror as she followed the trail of blood.

The girls clattered into the dimly-lit room, one by one kneeling down next to their fragile-looking friend cradled in the arms of a figure.

"Mary?" Ali said, surprised by her presence.

"Oh my god, Spencer." Emily muttered.

 _She was so pale._

She lay in Mary's lap, body trembling in uneven ticks as she struggled to breathe.

"Oh my god, what did you do?" Hanna demanded.

Mary ignored them, her gaze fixed on Spencer, "Please don't leave me. I would never hurt you…I'm your mother."

The girls' eyes widened with shock. But before the revelation could sink in, their attention shot back to Spencer as her breathing suddenly slowed and her eyes lazily rolled backwards into unconsciousness.

"Spencer, no!" Aria cried out.

"Please, Spence, stay with us." pleaded Emily.

What little color left in Spencer's face was gone, and any sign of life seemed to have seeped its way into her once white sweater.

"We have to call 911." said Aria.

"I already did." Mary solemnly said as she continued to stroke Spencer's forehead in a comforting manner.

"Spencer, please wake up." Emily continued to beg with tears in her eyes.

"She won't wake. She's lost too much bl…" Mary said.

"Shut up. Get away from her!" Hanna suddenly yelled.

"Hanna! She's her…" Ali began.

"No! Don't say it. We don't know anything for sure. For all we know, she could've been the one who shot Spencer and this is her crazy mind covering it all up."

"Hanna…" Aria started but just then, sirens could be heard in the distance. The girls' faces lit up faintly with hope. "You hear that, Spence? Help is on the way. Just hold on." Emily said reassuring both Spencer and herself.

Mary visibly tensed.

"You're right…you don't know anything. I don't expect you to trust me, but you don't know the full story…what I've been through. I would never hurt my child."

As the sirens got closer, Mary began inching her way out from under Spencer. She looked to Ali, "Here, here, take her head. Easy now. Just keep pressure on the wound. Okay?"

"Wait, Mary, where are you going?" Aria demanded as clamoring footsteps could be heard running up the stairs.

"Ju-just keep pressure on it." she said more sternly before softening, "I can't lose her…not again." Mary took one last look at Spencer with an expression straddling regret for leaving and a crazed urgency to flee. And with that, she disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

The girls sat in the waiting room, a disquieting silence a presence of its own filling the room. It had felt like hours.

Hanna was the first to break the silence but she was soon sorry she did.

"Guys, if Noel was AD and Noel is dead? That means…"

"Don't say that out loud." Emily cut her off.

"That's what we're all thinking." Ali replied.

"No, I know but just don't say it out loud…okay, not yet." Emily insisted.

Aria cut in, "Besides, how can you even think about that right now, Hanna?"

"Well what do you want me to think about?" Hanna said defensively.

"I don't know…how about Spencer? Maybe if you had been thinking a bit more about the rest of us instead of going off all rogue by yourself, we wouldn't be here right now. Spencer wouldn't be fighting for her life."

"Aria!"

"What, it's true." Aria said coldly.

"Guys! Cut it out." Emily tried to reason, "Let's just focus on Spencer making it out of this, okay? None of this fighting is helping."

And as if on cue, Caleb came barreling in to Hanna's rescue, pushing through the hospital's revolving doors straight into sweeping her into his arms.

"Are you okay?" He asked, both hands grasping either side of her face, his eyes frantically scanning her for injuries.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Hanna said holding back tears of relief.

"I came as soon as I heard. How is she?"

"We don't know yet. They took her into surgery but the doctors haven't said anything yet. The Hastings are here too," Ali pointed to a cluster of seats closest to the emergency room doors, "but they haven't been able to get any answers either."

"I'll go check in with the nurses again." Emily said.

Caleb gave Hanna another hug, "I'm just so glad that you're safe." Hanna's eyes glistened under the fluorescent hospital lights, gleaming with the tears she fought to hold back.

 _Aria's words had stung…but she was right. She was safe, but Spencer wasn't, and it was all her fault._

* * *

"Excuse me, I'm here for Spencer Hastings. Do you have any updates yet?" Emily asked.

"I'm sorry, miss, but she's still in surgery. The doctor will come out to talk to the family as soon as she is done."

"Okay…thanks." Emily started to walk away disappointedly.

"Wait, miss, have you gotten that checked out?" she motioned to Emily's hand.

Emily looked down. There was a gash that ran along her knuckles."Oh this? It's nothing. I didn't even realize it was there. It doesn't even hurt."

"Let's get you all stitched up."

"No, that's not necessary."

"I must insist. Besides, it'll help pass the time and next thing you know, the doctor will be done with your friend's surgery and you'll feel a lot better. Sounds good?"

"…Okay."

The nurse ushered Emily into an exam room. "Wait here, I'll just get some supplies and be right back."

It hadn't even been a minute before Emily's nervous energy launched her off the exam table and into a pacing frenzy in the small room. There seemed to be a lot of activity in the room next door. Her eager eyes looking for a distraction peered through the adjoining door's window and caught a glimpse of a familiar face…

 _Yvonne!_

Without hesitation, Emily pushed through the swinging doors and for the second time that night, she found herself breaking down into tears. Yvonne stood against the wall, distraught and matted in a mix of grime and blood, watching in horror as the doctors worked on the motionless figure on the table.

* * *

The doctor came out and before the door could even swing close, Veronica Hastings was standing right in front of her. "Doctor, how is she? H-how is Spencer?"

Hanna, Aria, Ali, and Caleb huddled around eagerly.

"We were able to extract the bullet but her injuries are extensive. There was some damage to her left lung which collapsed, but we put her on a respirator to help her breathing. The bullet also nicked an artery which explains the massive blood loss and unfortunately, this led to complications during the surgery. She went into shock during the procedure and though we were able to stabilize her, your daughter slipped into a coma."

Veronica broke down in Peter's arms who asked, "What does this mean, doc?"

"The next 72 hours are critical and we will continue to monitor her. She's been through a lot, but she's young and strong. Physically, we've done what we can to repair the damage. The rest is up to her. In order to help her body recover from the traumatic ordeal, her mind has just retreated to a safe place."

 _*Flashback*_

 _"_ Look, I've never…had a safe place to land. But now I feel like I do, so…I want you to stay safe."

"If you need anything tonight, I'll be there for you."

"I love knowing that."

 _*End of Flashback*_

Spencer's eyes shot open as she gasped for air. And there he was.

"Toby."

* * *

A/N: I started this fanfic after feeling let down by the direction of the 7A cliffhanger finale. I was hoping they would redeem themselves when they picked up the storyline, but I was even more disappointed to find that they breezed right through the fallout which would've made for some really compelling tv. Along the way, the writing ceased to focus on what made this series so great in the first place — the bond of the girls' friendship. If anything, the girls seemed agitated to be at the hospital, and it felt like they were somehow more concerned about Toby than Spencer. Rant over...

Oh, and I didn't start off with this in mind but my story will get more Spoby-centric.


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